Everyone should have a best friend like Donkey. Marcus Ayton’s superlative performance as Shrek’s long-suffering side-kick quadruped lit up a sparkling all round performance from a super-tight ensemble in this staged version of the Dreamworks animated film from 2001.

From the moment a large storybook opened centre stage to reveal little Shrek and his parents bidding him farewell, we knew this production had plenty of magic dust up its sleeve.

We meet the ‘grown-up’ Shrek, now living in his very own swamp, sluicing his armpits with live skunk spray and farting spectacularly, to the great merriment of the under 10s in the audience. From his quagmire estate, our solitary rotund hero first rescues a donkey from the soldiers of the evil Lord Farquaad, before his life is interrupted by an invasion of fairytale characters who have been banished from their land by the dictator. Shrek sets out to win them back their rights but in doing so becomes embroiled in Farquaad’s dastardly plan to attain kinghood by marrying Princess Fiona, tantalisingly out of reach in a tower guarded by a dragon in the middle of a lava lake.

Yes, plenty of pantomime-like clichés here, but this production clips (and clops) along at a great rate, with plenty of dazzle to be enjoyed from Tim Hatley’s set and costume designs brought to life by Josh Prince’s scintillating choreography. Full-on fun, Shrek is fuelled by 20 songs backed by a terrific seven-piece band, what’s not to like?

Well, OK, some of the songs are maybe a little too overworked, with three lines sometimes being sung across one another making it hard to distinguish the lyrics. Shrek’s all-too-easy arrival at the top of tower beggars belief perhaps, and maybe there is one schmaltzy love song too many. But there is some great singing from Fiona (Amelia Lily of X-factor fame), who escapes her patriarchy-heavy destiny with feistiness and fun, and in particular Marcus Ayton’s gorgeous soul tones as Donkey in Make a Move was worth the entrance fee alone. And I’d say the dragon gets douze points too, especially when fluttering her eyelids and wings at Donkey!

As the evil adversary, Samuel Holmes’s hilarious performance as the diminutive Lord Farquaad was enormous fun to watch as he scampered about the stage on his (hidden) knees. Mixing a degree of camp with fabulous showbiz timing, Holmes’s Farquaad was a delight. His reversal from the stage on his white charger to the beeping sound of a reversing truck brought one of the biggest laughs of the night.

Throughout, Steffan Harris’s Shrek projected an earnest and modest ogre, urged on by his more socially literate friend Donkey. His farting duel with Princess Fiona was the complete undoing of the younger audience members who were delighted!   ★★★★☆    Simon Bishop  10^th August 2018

Photo by Helen Maybanks